Simple Kind of Life
by poeticgrace
Summary: Nathan confesses his feelings for Peyton on her wedding day. ONE SHOT.


Whiskey bottles littered the dark living room. The distinct smell of three-day-old tequila filled the air. A soundless basketball game played on the big screen, sending flashes of light dancing over the pale walls. There was an album playing in the background on the impressive stereo, noticeable in fits and starts as the playlist wove from heartfelt indie acoustic tunes and driving punk-inspired songs. She recognizes it before she bothers to check out the discarded case on the coffee table for proof. It was the soundtrack to the benefit they'd helped put together junior year.

"Nate." Brooke frowned when she didn't get any response. "C'mon, Superstar, we're supposed to be at the church in less than an hour." Her frustration grew deeper when the basketball player cursed at her and turned over, flailing his lanky arms over his face in the process. Brooke delivered a swift kick to his thigh, causing his eyes to shoot wide open. "Nathan, get up. We're going to be late."

Brooke had no idea what the mess in his apartment was about but figured that it had a little something to do with the bachelor party Nathan had thrown last night for Lucas. He had gone on for weeks about how it was his job as the best man to make sure that his brother's last night of freedom was adequately celebrated. Brooke had thought something was off about the whole grand gesture from the beginning but chalked it up everyone being out of sorts with the hectic schedule of Nathan's professional basketball career, Luke's book release, Peyton's label launch, Brooke's Fashion Week in New York and Haley's latest visit to Tree Hill. Take all that chaos and mix in Lucas and Peyton's wedding, and everyone had been too busy to properly celebrate much.

"I'm not going," he finally mumbled as he sat up, wiping tiredly at his eyes with the back of his hand. "Luke and I had a fight last night. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want me there now anyhow. Just go onto the church, Brooke. No sense in both of us missing it."

Her dark eyes went wide as she looked down at her oldest friend. Long before she had bothered to look twice at Lucas and Nathan had noticed the certain length of Peyton Sawyer's cheerleading skirt, the two of them had been best friends in the certain social circle that their parents' money had afforded them. "Nate, Peyton will kill me if I show up to the church without you. Look, I don't know why you got into a fight with Lucas last night, but I'm sure that you were both just drunk. You're his brother, of course he wants you there! Get up, slap on some cologne and get your ass in gear."

Nathan knew that Brooke was basically begging him and that most of what she said was probably true. However, the last thing he wanted to do was face his brother or the angry words they'd shared last night. "I'm not going, Brooke," he repeated firmly. "Luke made it very clear that he didn't want me to be his best man last night. For once, I am going to just do what everyone wants and stay clear of it. I'm sure Mouth will do a great job."

Brooke reached down and smacked Nathan hard on the forearm. "You are such an ass," she bit out. "Our best friend is getting married today. What about Peyton, Nate? Remember her – the bride? She needs you there just as much as Luke needs you."

"Peyt has you and Haley," he waved off dismissively, letting his heavy eyes droop close. "Besides, she is getting married. She'll be focused on Luke. Hell, she probably won't even notice that I'm not there."

Just then, Brooke's phone chirped from the pocket of her jeans. She pulled it out and quickly checked the message from her aforementioned best friend. "Nathan, if you seriously believe that Peyton wouldn't notice you missing, you're a bigger idiot than any of us ever thought," she retorted, shaking her head sadly. "Look, I have to go. Peyton needs me, and unlike you, I plan on being there for her."

Nathan didn't bother to respond as Brooke hastily left his apartment, letting the door slam behind him. He looked around briefly to survey the disarrayed contents of his dark living room. It smelled like death in there and felt like it inside his pounding head. He knew that he should probably regret what happened last night and after a few hours of sobriety, he probably would. All he was really certain of right now was that his brother's hatred of him was now officially justified, and he really had no interest in trying to fix that in the immediate future. A few weeks of distance would probably prove good for all of them.

Things had been off between the Scott brothers since Nathan's divorce from Haley last year. She hadn't been able to cope with his drinking after the accident, and he hadn't blamed her one bit when she had filed for divorce. It had, however, been the wake-up call that he had needed, and their divorce was finalized one month after he left rehab. He started to focus his energy on rehabilitating his body and getting back in top-performing shape. Basketball and Jamie became his only priorities, and everything else seemed to fall by the wayside. When he was finally picked up by the Bobcats at the beginning of the season last fall, he had celebrated by throwing a big engagement party for Peyton and Luke. It was only after that things started to fall apart.

It started out innocently enough. Peyton and Nathan had always managed to stay friends after their breakup, and she had been one of the few people not to pick sides during the divorce. For a professional basketball player, Nathan had a surprising amount of free time. Lucas had somehow convinced his younger brother to devote some of that time to helping Peyton plan the wedding. Brooke was busy with her spring line, Haley wasn't really comfortable helping with the divorce still so fresh and Lucas had a string of deadlines to meet with his latest book. Nathan had begrudgingly agreed to help Peyton to look at reception venues, a simple kind gesture that would eventually spiral out of control until he found himself falling in love with the fiercely-independent blonde all over again.

For both their parts, Nathan and Peyton had managed to keep things completely platonic, but Nathan knew that there was something brewing between them. When the wedding coordinator had forced him to step in as the groom last night during the rehearsal dinner, it had been the final straw for Nathan. Lucas must have seen something as he talked to the preacher at the back of the church because it was the first thing out of his mouth when they hit the club last night for the bachelor party. Luke had started throwing accusations and Nathan had started throwing back drinks and it wasn't too long before they were both throwing punches. Mouth had eventually broken up the fight and sent Nathan home in a taxi. Lucas had made sure that he had made his wishes for a change in wedding party perfectly clear before the door had slammed shut on the yellow cab.

Nathan knew that it was wrong for him to be so selfish. He hadn't meant to fall for Peyton all over again, and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt his brother after how far they'd all come. He also owed it to Peyton to suck it up and be there for her. Brooke was right; she was their best friend. He couldn't just be there for her today. He also wasn't sure he could watch her go through it with it when he felt in his bones that it was a huge mistake.

"Alright, Scott, let's suck it up," he urged himself as he stood up with a long stretch. He scrambled around the apartment quickly, putting together pieces of an outfit until he was dressed. The clock on the microwave indicated that he had less than a half-hour to get to the church. He managed to find his car keys in an empty pot on the stove and his wallet stuck between newspapers scattered around his bathroom floor. With one last scan of the living room, he found the pair of wedding gifts he had bought last week and shoved them into his back pocket.

Ten minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot outside the church and watched as the last handful of guests filed into the pristine white people. He could see Larry Sawyer loitering outside and a few old friends from high school talking in a small cluster near the door. Nathan looked at the outside of the building, trying to configure the makeup of the building so that he could avoid the crowd and still make it inside. He had to see Peyton before this all went down. It was the only way he would ever be able to put any of this behind him.

He managed to go mostly undetected as he slipped through the side door and followed the signs toward the bridal dressing room. Haley was outside the door in the hallway talking to Jamie, looking beautiful in her olive bridesmaid dress. Her smile fell away as she spotted her ex-husband and he knew immediately that Lucas had opened his big mouth to his ex-wife. Nathan was grateful that his son was there or he could have been facing a very nasty confrontation. After he had hugged Jamie, Haley tugged on her son's hand and led him down the hall, mumbling something about wanting to see Lucas before the ceremony.

Nathan timidly knocked on the door and pushed it open when Brooke yelled out permission. Peyton was sitting in front of the vanity, her face perfectly lit by the oversized bulbs, while Brooke tried to arrange the veil around her intricate hair. He stopped short in the doorway, suddenly losing all breath. "Beautiful," he gasped, not being able to stop the word before it escaped from his mouth. Brooke scowled at him, but he didn't notice it through Peyton's radiant smile. As far as he was concerned, that's all there was.

"About time you showed up, Superstar," Peyton said affectionately as she shrugged off Brooke and abandoned her vanity to greet him with a warm hug. Brooke noted just how happy her best friend was to let Nathan wrinkle her dress and knock her veil slightly askew just for a hug. "Brooke said you were running late. I was hoping I'd get to see you before we got up there..."

"Yeah, about that..." his voice trailed off as he reached up to straightened her veil. "You look beautiful, Peyt."

The blonde brushed prettily, her eyes sparkling as she lavished him with another smile. "Thank you," she retorted, her voice thick with something familiar. It reminded him of the first time he ever called her beautiful, back when they were just fifteen-year-olds messing around in his old bedroom at the beach house. If only he had known what he'd had back then, he wouldn't have messed around so much. "You okay, Nate?"

"Brooke, can you give us a minute?" Nathan asked without looking up at Brooke. "I need to talk to Peyton alone."

"Uh, she's getting married in ten minutes," Brooke pointed out.

"I know, I know," he said, finally tearing his gaze away from Peyton long enough to regard the brunette. "I promise it will be fast. I just need a minute. Please."

Brooke sighed haughtily but sashayed out of the room, finally giving them some much-needed privacy. "What's going on, Nate?" Peyton asked, clearly concerned. "Are you okay? Is it Luke? Did he change his mind? You're really starting to freak me out."

"Luke's fine," he assured her as he reached down for her hand. He folded his fingers around hers as he led her over to the small wicker couch in the corner. "I just needed to tell you a couple things and give you this." He reached in his pocket and handed her the flat box wrapped in silver paper. "Can you wait a minute before opening it?" Peyton nodded her agreement. "Thanks. Uh, so you should probably know that Luke and I got into it pretty bad last night. We actually kinda fought."

"Oh, Nate..."

"I know, Peyt," he said quickly to prevent the lecture. "Luke said some things and we had some words and then we fought. You should also probably know that I drank last night. I am going to go to a meeting tonight, I promise. I just wanted you to hear it from me first."

"Why did you fight with Luke? What did he say?"

Nathan brushed off the second question for the moment. "I'm not going to be part of the wedding, Peyt. Luke is pretty angry at me right now, and this is your day. I don't want to ruin that for either of you. I'm not even going to stay for the wedding."

"Nathan, you have to be there!" she cried immediately, grabbing his wrist for emphasis. "I can't do this without you. I don't want to do it."

"You can, Sawyer," he assured her, lifting her chin slightly so that their eyes met. "Luke and I got into a fight last night because he thinks that I'm in love with you."

"That's crazy!" she laughed. "We've been over for years. For years!"

He looked down at his hands and Peyton immediately understood. "Look, I probably shouldn't say this but I'm going to anyways. You don't have to do this, Peyt. You don't have to go through with us. I know this is coming out of left field and is kind of confusing. I should have probably said something before now, before," he paused, checking his watch," "six minutes before you're getting married, but if I don't say it now, I know that I never will. I love you, Peyt. I have for awhile now, probably before I really realized it. Dammit." His swore stopped him short. "I'm so sorry. This isn't fair to you. I shouldn't have come here...I, I just...I just needed to tell you. Please don't hate me."

Peyton was frozen as Nathan started to go. It was only when she heard the door knob start to turn that she snapped out of it. "Nate, wait!" her voice rang out, stopping him in his tracks. Nathan turned slowly and looked back at Peyton, her hands over her mouth. Her engagement ring sparkled in the natural sunlight flooding through the nearby window. "Maybe it wasn't as out of left field as you think."

Nathan abandoned the door knob and came back over to her slowly. "You mean you knew?"

"I suspected," she confirmed. Her hands fingered the silver package still resting in her lap. "I had kind of wondered for awhile, but last night, I saw the panic in your eyes. Nate, I'm supposed to marry your brother."

"I know, in three minutes," he announced, holding up his wrist so that she could see his watch.

"I'm supposed to marry your brother," she repeated, "and yet, I'm here wondering if I could sneak through this window and get back to your truck before anyone would notice I'm even gone." She doesn't look at him as she says this. "This isn't normal, Nate. I shouldn't be thinking like that about you or anyone for that matter. I should be happy, right?" Her face turns so that her eyes can find his again. "Luke is a really nice guy. That's what I always wanted. I wanted to find someone who would just love me. So many people had left before, including you. Luke was different, he was going to be the one who saved me from that."

"I don't know what to say, Peyt."

"And you had all the words a minute ago," she pointed out uselessly. "Can I open this now?"

Nathan looked down at the package and nodded reluctantly. It seemed futile to argue with her but he knew that they were wasting the last minutes before the wedding with this. Brooke would be back any minute to whisk Peyton away from him, probably for forever. Peyton was careful as she removed the box from the silver paper, folding it neatly in her lap as if for safe-keeping for later. As she lifted off the lid, a familiar piece of jewelry sparkled back up at her.

"My necklace. You still had it?"

It was the first piece of jewelry he'd ever given a girl, a simple silver necklace he had picked up on a trip to Charlotte during his sophomore year of high school. He had known that it was meant for Peyton as soon as he had spotted it in the upscale boutique his mother had dragged him to in search of a dress for some function his parents were throwing. He had given up the rest of his spending money for the trip and half of what he saved up for the new Jordans to buy her that necklace. It had all felt worth it when Peyton had lifted her golden curls for him to clasp it around her neck.

"It was yours. I couldn't get rid of it."

Just like that, Peyton lifted her hair off her neck and waited expectantly for Nathan to put it on. She smiled as the cool silver chain dropped around her neck. Peyton reached up to finger it, playing with the chain and ignoring the intricate strand of pearls that also laid there. They belonged to Karen, on loan for the whole Something Borrowed part of the silly wedding tradition.

"I can't believe you kept it after all these years."

"I always knew that I'd give it back to you someday."

"P. Sawyer, get your ass out here!" Brooke suddenly called out, knocking loudly on the door to the bridal suite. "You are officially late for your own wedding."

"Oh, God," Peyton said suddenly, her eyes wide as she looked up at Nathan in fear. "I can't..." She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. "Nate, I can't, we can't..."

"It's okay, I understand," he said softly. He leaned down and kissed her cheek chastely. "Good luck, Peyt. You make a beautiful bride."

Nathan didn't wait for her to call out this time as he slipped from the bridal room, leaving a stunned Brooke in his wake. He walked straight out the church, past everyone he knew and down the sidewalk before climbing into his car. He heard the chapel bells starting to ring as he started his engine. He didn't even bother to look back as he left the church and everything that it held behind.

Two hours later, Nathan walked out into the unforgiving afternoon sunshine and headed back to his car. It had been a long meeting but a fulfilling one, a place where he got to talk about everything that had happened without any judgment. He had talked to his sponsor afterward about a few of the holes left in his story and promised that he had no intention of falling off the wagon again. After a quick stop by the market, he returned home with a bag full of cleaning supplies and food. It was about time he got his life – and his apartment – back in order.

Nathan was humming a sad love song to himself as he opened the door to his apartment, balancing the grocery bag on his hip while he grabbed envelopes from the mailbox. He didn't really look up as he came into the living room, discarding the mail on the end table. It's only when he reaches up to flip on the light that he notices the outline of a figure sleeping on his sofa. He sat down the grocery bag next to his mail as he approached the sleeping form.

"Peyton?" he asked uncertainly as he knelt beside her. He reached up and shook her shoulder carefully. "Peyt, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at your reception?"

Peyton smiled up at him sleepily as he flipped on the lamp beside the sofa. He noticed that all of the alcohol bottles were gone and all of the picture frames were upright on the mantle. She had also lit a few candles around the room to get rid of the alcohol stench. Nathan noticed that she had done all this while still wearing her wedding dress.

"I didn't marry Lucas," she announced, holding out her bare left hand for him to see. "I thought about what you said and then I looked up at him waiting for me at the altar and I wanted to run away. I almost did but then Brooke caught me, and damn, her nails are sharp!" Nathan smiled slightly at the joke but his eyes implored her to finish the story. "She made me talk to Luke, and I heard his side of the story and I just knew that I couldn't do it, Nate. I couldn't marry this guy, no matter how great he was, when I was clearly in love with someone else."

A brighter smile than before lit up his face as he reached out to hug her. Peyton buried her face in his neck, inhaling that familiar Nathan scent and knowing that she had made the right choice. Nathan pulled back and pressed his forehead to hers. "Are you sure, Peyt?"

"I'm here, aren't I?" she asked rhetorically. "I didn't get the chance to say it before, Nate, but I love you too."

"You do?"

She smiled affectionately at the goofy dumb grin on his face. "Very much."

It wasn't how Peyton had imagined that her wedding day would end up, but as Nathan crawled up onto the couch to hold her close, she knew that it was how it should. This was the place she was always meant to be, in the arms of the first man who had ever really loved her. It wasn't going to be easy; in fact, she knew that they had hurt a lot of people today with what had happened. However, as Nathan brushed a kiss to her temple, she knew that it would always be worth it because it would always be the right choice. This was all she had ever wanted – a simple kind of life with Nathan.


End file.
